The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday announced changes to automatic teller machines (ATM) rules regarding cash withdrawals. These changes include an increase in fees for transactions above the free authorized monthly limit, a new free transaction limit at ATMs, and an increase in interchange fees per transaction.

“The panel’s recommendations have been thoroughly reviewed. It is also observed that the last change in the structure of interchange fees for ATM transactions dates back to August 2012, while the fees payable by customers were last revised in August 2014. Considerable time s ‘has therefore passed since these fees were last changed, ”the central bank said. said in his circular.

The changes were announced based on suggestions from a committee set up by RBI in June 2019, chaired by the Managing Director of the Association of Indian Banks to review all ATM fees and commissions by putting special emphasis on interchange. structure for ATM transactions, PTI news agency reported.

Here are the changes announced by the RBI to the ATM cash withdrawal rules:

1. Exceeding the monthly limit for free transactions:

Customers will have to pay ₹21 per transaction, instead of ₹20 if they exceed their monthly free transaction limit. This increase will be effective from January 1, 2022.

“To compensate the banks for the higher interchange fees and in view of the general escalation of costs, they are allowed to increase the fees for customers to ₹21 per transaction. This increase will be effective from January 1, 2022, ”said RBI in its circular.

2. New limit for free transactions at ATMs:

Customers will remain eligible for five free transactions, financial and non-financial, per month from their own ATMs. They will also be entitled to three free transactions at ATMs of other banks in metropolitan centers and five transactions in non-metropolitan centers.

3. Increase in the interchange fee:

As of August 1 of this year, banks are allowed to increase interchange fees per transaction by ₹15 to ₹17 for financial transactions and ₹5 to ₹6 for non-financial transactions in all centers.

Also look | ATM withdrawal fees increase if you exceed the free quota. The RBI movement explained

RBI said these fees have been allowed to increase due to the increasing cost of deploying ATMs and ATM maintenance expenses incurred by banks or white label ATM operators. PTI reported that as of March 31, 2021, there were 115,605 on-site ATMs and 97,970 off-site ATMs in the country and that around 900 million debit cards issued by different banks were in circulation at the end of the year. March.